MAJOR FLOOD EMERGENCIES IN NSW
1955, February, Hunter Valley
- 24 dead
- Over 40,000 people were evacuated in 40 towns.
Extreme floods caused great loss of life and property when almost every river system in NSW flooded.
In the Hunter Valley alone - around Singleton and Maitland - there were 24 deaths, 58 homes destroyed or washed away (31 of them at Maitland) and 5,200 homes flooded including:
2,180 at Maitland (where the Hunter River reached 11m),
1,250 at Singleton
370 at Muswellbrook
15,000 people were temporarily homeless. Hundreds of vehicles were also damaged, as well as roads, railways & bridges destroyed. There were also great agricultural losses with crops and thousands of livestock destroyed and land covered by metres of sand & debris. At Branxton where some of the deepest flooding occurred, the water was almost 4m deep at the Commercial Hotel. The extreme flood conditions lasted for six days in the Hunter Valley.
Most other river systems in NSW were also in flood.
